NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) - A bankruptcy court judge on Thursday approved Enron Corp.'s $342 million sale of its wind turbine business to General Electric Co..
Printer-friendly version E-mail to colleagues
Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez approved the sale, which will transfer the wind-turbine building assets of Enron Wind Corp. to a GE subsidiary, at a hearing in his Manhattan court, Enron spokesman John Ambler said.
GE won the sale in a court-sponsored auction on April 2, at which it added roughly $100 million on top of its original bid of around $250 million.
The total sale figure includes $325 million cash and about $17 million in other considerations including assumed debt, Ambler said.
The sale is part of Enron's plan to shed underperforming assets to pay more than $40 billion owed to creditors in its record Chapter 11 bankruptcy, filed on Dec. 2.
The sale still faces regulatory scrutiny.
GE has said the proposed acquisition would be its first investment in wind power, an industry which it expects to grow at an annual rate of some 20 percent. General Electric sees Europe, the United States, and Latin America as the main markets for wind-generated electricity.
General Electric Power Systems will acquire Enron Wind Corp.'s wind turbine manufacturing and marketing operations. Wind farms owned or operated by Enron are not part of the deal, which is expected to close around May.
Enron Wind has manufacturing plants in the United States, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands and also has 11 sales offices in various countries around the world.
In connection with the planned sale to GE, Enron Wind will file a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Enron Wind is based in Tehachapi, California, and has 1,600 employees worldwide. It was not included in Enron's Dec. 2 bankruptcy filing.
The unit's revenues have grown from about $50 million when it was acquired by Enron in 1997 to some $750 million in 2001.
European companies dominate wind turbine manufacturing, reflecting public policies in many European countries that promote the use of wind power. Enron Wind is the world's seventh biggest wind turbine manufacturer.
(C) Reuters Limited 2002.
http://www.slb.com/ba.cfm?baid=4&storyid=535499